Tag Archives: The Force Awakens

40 Things I Love About Star Wars: Part 3

Your likes about something can say a lot about you as a person. To some people, of course, me liking the Star Wars prequels means that I’m young and I’m not bothered by campy dialogue. Go figure. But I also like the Original Trilogy, which means I still have good taste, and I get a kick out of Han and Leia bickering just like everybody else does. More importantly, liking Star Wars means that I like stories that make me think and learn. And I love redemption stories, a lot. I like the costumes and the different planets and the spaceships and the music score. I think that’s because I value everything human that went into making these films and creating this world: the gifts and talents of the actors, the hard work of designers and animators, Trisha Biggar’s absolutely exquisite costume work on the prequels, John Williams’ touch with the music, and of course George Lucas’ vision. I think of Star Wars, and I think of someplace beautiful I can go to in my mind. There is so much about it that resonates with me.

Here are 10 more things that I think make Star Wars amazing.

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40 Things I Love About Star Wars: Part 2

Continuing with our 40th anniversary celebration, here are 10 more things I like about Star Wars. Not in any particular order. Today’s post is mostly about droids and spaceships—but that’s not really a bad thing, since the Star Wars universe is famous for them.

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Han and Leia: Remember When

As I mentioned in my Willow post last week, there is a special flavor with relationships that start out with the two lovebirds hating each other’s guts. Few classic love stories in that category are as popular or well-loved as the romance of Han Solo and Princess Leia. And I personally find their relationship very entertaining. No, seriously: just because I like the Prequels doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the Original Trilogy. Far from that. And since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the movie where Han and Leia met, how more appropriate to celebrate this Valentines’ day (belatedly) with a blog post in their honor, to shower their ship with praise and brutal analysis and feels.

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A True Princess: Leia Organa’s Story

I figured something out a month or two ago: Princess Leia does not get to live a happy life.

Popular culture has always defined the term “princess” as a helpless or hapless royal heroine, a damsel in distress, a fashion model. And pop culture dictates that a princess must go on to live “happily ever after,” either by marrying a more or less royal Prince Charming or by asserting her female independence.   The term “Princess” looks superficial on Leia, but she lives up to her title in so many ways.

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Living with Super Powers: A Survey

The cool thing about science fiction and fantasy is that it allows us to examine what makes us human. Because more often than not, the genre features a protagonist or group of protagonists with capabilities beyond those of ordinary humans. And sometimes we watch how extraordinary humans cope with still living an ordinary life, or learning to adjust to a different one.

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10 Things that Happened in One Year Plus with the Geeky Mormon

Summer of 2015, Jake asked for people to come co-write for The Geeky Mormon. I posted my first article in July. So it’s been more than a year—more like a year and two months. But better late to get around to an anniversary-type post than never. This isn’t really to brag on my achievements but to look back on what else I’ve been doing with my life in addition to The Geeky Mormon as well as some of the changes that have happened, some I may have mentioned in writing, others not so much.

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‘Star Wars: Bloodline’ is Amazing. That is All.

Dear Mom: If you are reading this, I want this book for Christmas, and I also think you should read this book because I think you would love it. I think the boys and Mary Lynne would love it, too.

To my general readers: I haven’t read that many Star Wars books. I never touched the former EU/Legends material. So I couldn’t tell you fairly how it compares. But this is one of the best books I have ever read, period. And I think it needs to be read. And my fellow Star Wars geeks on Far Far Away Radio agree. Bloodline by Claudia Gray is that good. My review here contains a lot of what you would consider spoilers but Bloodline is not that fun to talk about without them. I have a lot of feelings for this book.

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Who is the Girl from Jakku?

Hello. Once again, I’m running behind. Life happens. But, better late than never, here are a few thoughts on Rey:

Rey claims to be a nobody. But when The Force Awakens came out, her innocence, wit, and charm stole the show, and then she came out swinging against Kylo Ren. Nearly all of the marketing attention was on Finn—let’s face it, trailers have to be misleading—and even though I had high expectations for Rey she proved to be more amazing than I could have thought.

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11 Unknowns We Have About Star Wars Episode VIII

(sorry I didn’t get around to writing last week. I have a new job and life is kind of crazy right now)

As of next Friday, we are seventeen months out from Star Wars Episode VIII. We got a set visit by Prince William and a few bizarre pictures of on-location shooting in Europe. Beyond that, we have no plot details and no title. Considering the publicity timeline for The Force Awakens, the lack of info is not surprising. But at this point in the wait, everything is fair game for speculation, including the unrealistic expectations we’ve been nursing since last December. Here are eleven in-universe questions I have about what may or may not be happening in the next installment of the saga. Some questions will be answered as time goes on, but some will have to wait until December 15, 2017 (which, oddly enough, is the day after my 2_th birthday)

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Of Villains and Victims

“It is our choices, Harry, that make us who we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  Over the last few years, I have come to realize that there is a lot of truth to this statement. Choices are what decide whether we’re good or bad, not what we’re capable of doing.  Choices also determine our character more than the bad things we put up with in life. There was a banner on the wall of my high school gym: attitude is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react. That is the difference between a villain and a victim.

WARNING: Skip the next two paragraphs if you don’t want spoilers for Supergirl

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